AFP.com/ Argentine prosecutor who accused Kirchner found dead: media

SHAFAQNA –An Argentine prosecutor who accused President Cristina Kirchner of obstructing a probe into the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center reportedly died just hours before he was due at a Congressional hearing Monday.According to several Argentine television stations citing judicial sources, Alberto Nisman was found dead overnight in his apartment in the trendy Puerto Madero neighborhood of the capital. The cause of death was not immediately known.

The 1994 van bombing of the building of the Argentine Jewish Charities Federation, or AMIA, left 85 people dead and 300 others injured in the worst attack of its kind in the South American country.

Nisman had last week asked for an investigation into possible obstruction by Kirchner and was due to speak at a Congressional hearing Monday.

The prosecutor, who had led the bombing investigation since 2004, accused Iran of being behind the attack and said Kirchner hampered the enquiry to curry favor with the Islamic republic.

Nisman had also accused former president Carlos Menem (1989-’99) of helping obstruct an investigation into the bombing.

The bombing came two years after an attack against the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.